The 15th Startup Champions Seed Night took place at the EPFL Rolex Forum in Lausanne, gathering 500 participants on site and online. The audience included founders, investors, researchers, and ecosystem partners following a pitch evening focused on early-stage ventures emerging from EPFL and the Canton of Vaud.
Held on May 7, 2026, at the Rolex Forum in Lausanne, the Startup Champions Seed Night featured twenty startups covering a range of early-stage technologies and digital solutions emerging from the regional ecosystem. Each team had 90 seconds to present its project to the audience. The format spanned four rounds with five presentations per round. After several rounds of voting, the audience selected four finalists: Dexterous Endoscopes, CaptuREE, OptiZone, and OrthoSens.
Pierre Baqué, co-founder of Neural Concept, delivered a keynote speech, sharing his path from academic research to founding a company and the early decisions involved in building a venture. The evening also included a one-to-one discussion with Florent Héroguel, co-founder and co-CEO of Bloom Biorenewables. Both companies are alumni of Venture Kick and Venture Leaders, are ranked among the Top100 Swiss Startups, and have completed major financing rounds in 2025, CHF 100 million for Neural Concept and CHF 13 million for Bloom Biorenewables.
“Building a company means making difficult and sometimes radical decisions. Leadership is not only about vision, but also about having the courage to adapt before the market forces you to,” highlighted Pierre Baqué.
“Fundraising and entrepreneurship are ultimately about people. The best partnerships are built through transparent conversations, trust, and shared ambition,” continued Florent Héroguel.
The evening brought together founders, investors, mentors, and industry representatives for discussions around company building, fundraising, and market entry strategies. Conversations continued after the pitches, with a focus on early-stage venture development in Switzerland.
"What's the one thing you most wanted to say in your pitch but didn't have time for? Who needs to believe in what you're building next, and how will you convince them? What has to be true in 18 months to reach your next major milestone? What's the insight about your market that most people in this room don't know yet?" these the questions put to the 4 finalists. After the session, the jury deliberated and chose the winner: Mina Baniasad, co-founder and CEO of OptiZone.
The event was organised by Venturelab and EPFL, and supported by EY, Innovaud, Kellerhals Carrard, Mirabaud, and Venture Kick.
Learn more about the 20 startups that pitched at the Startup Champions Seed Night 2026:
Apiona: Smart booking & care coordination for healthcare
Patients with complex care see many specialists with no shared system, repeating their history at every visit while clinicians start each consultation cold. Apiona is the AI coordination layer for com... Read more
Carina Power: Battery trading as a service
Carina Power develops software that makes battery storage more profitable and durable. Our platform helps BESS owners trade across electricity markets while accounting for the real ageing cost of each... Read more
coprod SA: Making Hardware Simple - The Legos of Robotics.
After spending over 4 years making robots (rovers, arms, dogs), our team was frustrated with the amount of time wasted trying to make components work together instead of focusing on making our robots ... Read more
Déploya: Déploya robotizes façade construction workflows
Déploya addresses high safety risks, long installation times, and frequent errors associated with conventional scaffolding systems that rely heavily on manual work. The project introduces a smart, fas... Read more
Dexterous Endoscopes Sàrl: Equipping doctors with next-generation endoscope technology.
One in five people worldwide undergoes a minimally invasive procedure using endoscopes. Rigid devices offer stability and precision but lead to more invasive surgeries and longer recovery times. Soft ... Read more
Fusionality SA: Control & data systems for the fusion reactor era
Fusion energy is entering a critical phase: multiple well-funded private companies are racing to build prototype reactors. Yet, many of them will soon face a similar bottleneck - to build out their pl... Read more
H2REMA Sàrl: The most efficient electrolyzer at the lowest cost
In a world urgently seeking sustainable solutions, green hydrogen produced through electrolysis is essential to replacing fossil fuels. REMA develops and commercializes anion exchange membrane (AEM) ... Read more
Larmor mmWave Systems: Next-gen microwave solutions for communication and energy
High power microwave sources will become the new hardware layer for high value industries. Fusion energy, millimeter wave drilling for deep geothermal, wireless power transmission, advanced materials ... Read more
MOLECL: Nanopore-based detection of protein modifications.
Currently, detection of protein modifications like glycosylation is slow, expensive, and often lacks site-specific resolution. This leads to late-stage diagnostics in cancer, neurodegenerative, and au... Read more
Neurovia Sàrl: Developing devices for blood pressure modulation.
Problem: Drug resistant hypertension and postural hypotension are diseases which have severe long term consequences and to this day no effective solution exists. Through our neural interface we are ca... Read more
Obstetrical Care Solutions: 3D visualization during birth delivery to assist physicians.
Our product will be sold to maternity wards, and necessitate a yearly license. The product come as an add-on to echography devices, enhancing acquisitions to allow for 3D modeling and visualization of... Read more
OptiZone SA: Pushing athletic boundaries safely with personalized care.
ACL injuries cause 40% of time lost in professional sports, keeping players out for at least nine months. One-third of those who return suffer a second injury. This affects clubs (underachievement), i... Read more
OrthoSens SA: Making standard orthopedic implants smart.
Orthopedic recovery relies on X-rays and sporadic follow-ups. Surgeons depend on subjective patient self-reports, risking delayed & costly reoperation. Canary Medical knee sensor showed monitored pati... Read more
Raven Intelligent Systems: Autonomous Risk Monitoring for Outdoor Worksites
Raven Intelligent Systems is building an end-to-end automated inspection platform for safety-critical outdoor industrial sites. Using docked drones and static cameras, our system captures site data co... Read more
REON: REON turns buildings into circular assets
REON is a data intelligence solution that transforms how real estate owners and developers make reuse decisions. REON assesses and predicts the circular value of building components, capturing CO2 sav... Read more
Rhonexum Sàrl: Advancing cryogenic electronics for quantum and beyond.
Rhonexum Sàrl is a Swiss deep tech company developing specialized microchips that allow quantum computers to scale up. The company addresses a critical system-level bottleneck: today’s quantum instrum... Read more
TUUS Solutions Sàrl: Controlled-release hydrogel for steady carb delivery.
Tuus is pioneering a patent-pending hydrogel platform that delivers nutrients and drugs at a constant, predictable rate: achieving true zero-order release with natural, scalable materials. Starting in... Read more
WindLens: Localized actionable intelligence for your wind farm
WindLens combines advanced aerodynamics with AI-assisted intelligence to maximize wind farm profitability. At its core is a specialized "diffuser shroud" that encircles the turbine blades, creating a ... Read more
Zigzag Networks (hist.): Boosting datacenter communication for efficient AI compute
As AI compute clusters grow, the traditional electronic datacenter networking infrastructure struggles to satisfy both low latency and high data throughput. Optical interconnect solutions alleviate th... Read more
